Brownback pushes plan to divide Iraq into Sunni, Shiite, Kurdish states

WASHINGTON — Sen. Sam Brownback says there's only one sure way to bring peace to Iraq: Divide the country into three states and separate the warring factions.

With Congress and the White House at loggerheads over a proposed timetable to end the war, the Kansas Republican is part of an unlikely Senate duo that's promoting the plan to partition Iraq.

Brownback and Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, both candidates for president in 2008, say it would give breathing room for Sunni Muslim Arab, Shiite Muslim and Kurdish leaders.

"I do not agree with setting a timetable for pulling out of Iraq," Brownback, a Senate Foreign Relations Committee member, said in an interview. "The day we pass that is the day al-Qaida declares victory. ... This three-state, one-country solution is your only viable political solution."

At the first nationally TV debate for 2008 Republican presidential candidates Thursday night, Brownback touted the plan when asked whether he'd differ from President Bush on the Iraq war. Some analysts say it could be a risky move for Brownback, who might lose favor with conservatives by bucking the president.

The Bush administration, which is aiming to unite Iraq under one strong federal government, dismisses the plan. But it's winning attention on Capitol Hill because it's coming from two senators at opposite ends of the political spectrum, both with serious foreign-policy credentials.

Biden, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said the plan would allow the three states to make decisions involving "their local police, their education, their religion and marriage — the very things they're fighting over."

He said the Iraqi federal government would handle common interests such as securing the borders and distributing oil revenues.

Critics say political solutions can't be imposed on Iraq. "It's awfully hard for us, and frankly maybe slightly arrogant of us, to try to decide what politically will work for that country," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

Congress had to return to the drawing board last week after Bush vetoed a war-spending bill that would have forced him to begin withdrawing troops by Oct. 1.

Brownback said the stalemate gave Democrats and Republicans a chance to come together.

Peter Galbraith, a former U.S. ambassador to Croatia who's advised the Kurds, backs the plan. He said most Iraqis don't want civil war but have rejected the idea of a unified Iraq.

He said Iraq's new constitution would allow the country's three main groups to establish their own regions, each with its own government, army and control over oil resources.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, asked about the partitioning plan recently, noted that Iraqis aren't advocating such a structure.

"I don't think it is practical, particularly along ethno-sectarian lines, to divide Iraq up and give authority based on your sectarian identification, to say there's a Shia part of the country, a Sunni part of the country, a Kurdish part of the country," Rice told RealClear Politics. "Baghdad is a completely mixed city. What becomes of Baghdad? ... If you try to do this, I think you're going to have an explosion."